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Sony SDM-HS95P Review

Lean, Clean, and Extreme

May 10, 2005
By Eric Grevstad

Lean, Clean, and Extreme

Sony Electronics' SDM-HS95P is an exceptional 19-inch LCD monitor, but it's right at the top of the category's price range. We were debating whether or not to endorse it until Sony met us halfway: At least through June 30, a mail-in rebate trims the display from $700 to $600. That's still a premium price, but the HS95P is a premium flat panel.

Like the TV-tuner-equipped Sony HT75W we tested last month, the HS95P has an elegantly simple, curved-base design: Gently pushing or pulling the top of the display adjusts the tilt of its easel-like stand, which also determines its overall height and depth (the monitor measures 17 by 16 by 7 inches, plus or minus an inch or so).

Aside from the 0- through 20-degree tilt, there's no separate height adjustment, nor a swivel stand (merely moving the 13-pound monitor eliminates the need for the latter), nor a pivot to let you view Word or Web pages in portrait instead of landscape mode.

Nor, finally, is this Sony a widescreen display like the HT75W -- it follows the usual 19-inch LCD 4:3 aspect ratio and 1,280 by 1,024 resolution with 0.294mm pixel pitch. On the other hand, the display frame or bezel is thinner than the HT75W's; though not the skinniest we've seen (1 inch), it's suitable for side-by-side dual-monitor placement. A silver model is available if you don't like our test unit's black.

Both analog (VGA) and digital (DVI-D) inputs, along with the connector for the AC cord, hide behind a snap-on plastic panel at the rear. Sony earns points for supplying both VGA and DVI cables, as well as for keeping things neat with an internal power supply instead of external power brick; the company says the monitor draws a peak of 60 watts, falling to around 40 in normal operation and to just 1 watt in standby mode. One of the buttons at the bottom right of the display switches between analog and digital video.

Bright, Rich, Sharp, and Fast

Like a growing number of desktop as well as notebook LCDs, the HS95P has a contrast- and clarity-boosting design that shows as glossy black instead of gray when switched off (what Sony calls XBrite). The drawback is catching an occasional glimpse of your mirror image while working with darker areas within graphics; the plus is that the display's contrast more than matches some we've seen that top its official rating of 550:1.

Colors are clear and vivid, although depending on the brightness setting you might lose fine distinctions between the darkest darks (e.g., the far left side of our DisplayMate test screen spectrum). Speaking of test screens, we never noticed it in regular use, but full-screen, solid-color images revealed a single bad or dark pixel near the lower left corner of our test unit.

Sony modestly claims a 160-degree viewing angle to either side, as opposed to some LCD advertisers who seem to be in a bidding war ("170! No, 175! No, 179! No, 190, you can actually see the screen from behind!"). We might say slightly less -- more mirror reflections kick in as you look from wider angles -- but a few people can cluster around the HS95P with no problem to watch a presentation.

Two other features are noteworthy. One is the Sony's speed -- its response time is rated at 12 milliseconds, twice as fast as run-of-the-mill LCDs and easily enough for ghost- or smear-free viewing of fast-moving games or DVD movie scenes.

The other is a button that cycles through four brightness modes. The lowest, suggested for workaday PC applications, seemed a bit too dim or grayish to our eyes; the highest, suggested for games, cranks brightness to the maximum 400 nits to bring monsters out of the shadows, but is actually too bright for routine work sessions.

We happily settled on the in-between or "Movie" setting, which the display's Acrobat PDF manual says is optimized for a clear picture with strong contrast. The fourth setting is what Sony calls an ErgoBright option said to adjust brightness automatically for ambient light conditions; it didn't change noticeably when we turned our office fluorescents on and off, but serves as a handy manual mode if you want to adjust brightness using the buttons on monitor's bottom edge. The buttons also let you steer awkwardly through an on-screen control menu for gamma, color, contrast, and other settings; using the VGA interface gives you extra control over image fine-tuning and the option of a 75Hz refresh rate instead of the usual LCD 60Hz, though the latter looked flicker-free to us.

The HS95P looks so good, and its screen images look so good, that we found ourselves drifting toward cliché -- "offers everything you could want in an LCD monitor" -- before dragging in exceptions -- "unless you want height adjustment, or portrait/landscape pivoting, or a widescreen aspect ratio." Nevertheless, we're glad to see that though desktop flat panels are no longer rare, there are still standout, status-symbol products to treat yourself to. The Sony's pricey, but justifies its price. At least with the $100 rebate.

Pros: